Rep. Barney Frank won't run again

Tuesday

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2011 at 11:26 AM

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, an unapologetic, sharp-tongued warrior for liberals and a favorite target of conservatives, said he will not seek re-election next year, ending a career in Congress of more than three decades.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, an unapologetic, sharp-tongued warrior for liberals and a favorite target of conservatives, said he will not seek re-election next year, ending a career in Congress of more than three decades.

Frank, 71, played a key role in the government response to the meltdown of the financial markets in 2008. Then the chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, he was a key player in negotiations with President George W. Bush’s administration that produced the bailout of Wall Street banks and financial institutions.

Frank later was the co-author of legislation that tightened the regulatory net on those same institutions, an act that has been savaged by GOP presidential candidates this year as a drag on job creation.

Yesterday, Frank cited the redrawn congressional map in Massachusetts as a factor in his decision to retire. The revised district might have triggered a difficult re-election fight that would have demanded the kind of intense fundraising that Frank said he dislikes.

Frank is also the best-known openly gay politician in America. Frank revealed his sexual orientation early in his career, almost 25 years ago. In 1990, he was formally reprimanded by the House for his association with a male prostitute.

Frank flashed some of his trademark caustic wit at his news conference.

“The Republican Party today in the House,” he said, “consists half of people who think like Michele Bachmann and half of people who are afraid of losing a primary to people who think like Michele Bachmann. And that leaves you very little ability to work things out.”

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